BIOGRAPHY

Versatility, musicality and technical precision, and above all a natural and passionate approach are trademark features of French conductor Ariane Matiakh. The daughter of two opera singers, she grew up in an exceptionally musical environment and learnt to play the piano at an early age. Later, she studied orchestral conducting in Vienna, where she also sang in the renowned Arnold Schoenberg Choir under conductors including Nikolaus Harnoncourt and Adam Fischer. Particularly formative experiences during her comprehensive training include the time she spent studying with Leopold Hager and Seiji Ozawa. 

Her first appointment conducting in an opera house was at the Opéra et Orchestre de Montpellier, where she worked closely together with James Conlon, Armin Jordan, Emmanuel Krivine and Alain Altinoglu, among others. Subsequent engagements brought her to the Komische Oper Berlin, the Royal Swedish Opera in Stockholm, and to Amsterdam, Gothenburg, Graz, Nice, Strasbourg and Halle. In 2009, she was nominated “Discovery of the Year” by the most important music prize in France, the “Révélation des Victoires de la musique”.

Today, Ariane Matiakh’s repertoire covers opera and ballet, a wide variety of symphonic works, contemporary compositions and baroque music. 

She often appears as guest conductor with leading ensembles such as the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Dresden Philharmonic, the WDR and MDR Symphony Orchestras, the Orchestre du Capitole de Toulouse, the Orchestre de chambre de Paris and the Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg.

In the 2019/20 season, she makes her debut with the Wiener Symphoniker and the Hamburg Philharmonic State Orchestra in the Elbphilharmonie. She also makes guest appearances conducting La Bohème at the Royal Opera House in London and Carmen at the Norwegian National Opera in Oslo, as well as returning to the opera house in Strasbourg (Samson et Dalila) and to Stockholm for performances with the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra.

Ariane Matiakh’s versatility and the joy she experiences when making musical discoveries is also reflected in her discography. For the Capriccio label, she recorded the works of Johanna Doderer as well as a CD with music by Francis Poulenc and Jean Françaix; in 2018, she received a Grammy nomination for her Capriccio recording of both piano concertos by Zara Levina with the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra. As part of a further collaboration with the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, she recorded works by Harald Genzmer, Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari and Richard Strauss. Berlin Classic released a recording with piano concertos by Clara Schumann and Ludwig van Beethoven, performed by Ragna Schirmer and the Staatskapelle Halle.

In recognition of her achievements in French musical life and representing French culture abroad, Ariane Matiakh was awarded the “Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres” by the French ministry of culture in 2014.

Ariane Matiakh has been a professor at the Conservatoire national supérieur de musique et de danse de Paris since September 2018 and is General Music Director at the Opera and Staatskapelle Halle from the 2019/20 season onwards.